GAMECHANGERSPROGRAM

GAMECHANGERSPROGRAM

Gamechangers

What it is

Gamechangers is a course aimed at enhancing students’ abilities to succeed in the “real world”. The specifically designed modules will lead students to discover their passions and skills and acquire a set of practical tools that will aid them not only in their transition to university but also in their professional endeavors.

Why

We teach 21st century skills

Gamechangers, a STAANOI initiative, was designed to guide generations through the 21st century. Our aim is to empower individuals to take focused action, identify their purpose, make well-informed decisions about their life and act responsibly towards themselves and the world. Ultimately, we’d like to better equip them with the skills necessary to succeed in a continuously accelerating future.

How it works

The Gamechangers course consists of 12 Modules, each exploring a different topic. By the end of the course, students will have acquired the skills indispensable to be successful in the 21st century.

1. The toolbox:
21st century skills

The rules of the game have changed. Success in the 21st century can only be achieved with a specific and diverse set of skills. Gamechangers aims to give students these skills through informal and interactive sessions, setting them up for success upon graduation.

2. Discover hidden
passions and skills

Using the Gamechangers Modules and through active learning, professional Mentors and Ambassadors with different backgrounds and life experiences will guide students in the exploration of their own passions and core skills.

3. Become a Gamechanger
and change the game

In order to be successful, we must lead change and adapt to it. The skill set acquired through Gamechangers will allow students to embrace change and build on their core strengths and passions to design a meaningful and purposeful future.

Twenty years from now, you will be moredisappointed by the things that you didn’t do thanby the ones you did do… Explore, dream, discover.

Mark Twain

Twenty years from now, you will be moredisappointed by the things that you didn’t do thanby the ones you did do… Explore, dream, discover.

Mark Twain

Our Modules

The specifically designed modules will lead students to discover their passions and skills and acquire a set of practical tools that will aid them not only in their transition to university but also in their professional endeavors.

Communication

“Captivate your audience”

COMMUNICATION

Captivate your audience

In this module we explore all aspects of human communication, not only verbal and written. You will learn how to structure and deliver an effective message and you will be given the tools to make a truly captivating presentation.

Changemaking

“Embrace change”

CHANGEMAKING

Embrace change

Why is change so necessary? Why is it so difficult to achieve? We will answer these questions and explore ways in which we can effect change in a meaningful and successful manner.

Social Media

“Let your voice be heard!”

SOCIAL MEDIA

Let your voice be heard!

Students will learn how to leverage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to achieve personal and professional goals. You will be given tips on how to leave a compelling footprint in the digital arena.

Empathy

“Connect to people’s hearts”

EMPATHY

Connect to people’s hearts

We will explore empathy and understand why it is essential to making us better people and helping us forge successful relationships.

Negotiation

“Get to a win-win outcome”

NEGOTIATION

Get to a win-win outcome

You will learn how to establish a constructive dialogue and develop better listening skills in order to settle disagreements and carry out a successful negotiation.

Decision Making

“Make the right choice”

DECISION MAKING

Make the right choice

In this Module students will discuss why making the right decisions can often be hard. We will provide a framework for approaching our decision making process in a structured and personalized manner.

Leadership

“Inspire action”

LEADERSHIP

Inspire action

You will get an insight into how great leaders lead. You will uncover your personal strengths and define the vision and values to create your own personal leadership style.

Creativity

“Think outside the box”

CREATIVITY

Think outside the box

We will provide you with tools to unleash your creativity – all of us have plenty, we just don’t know it! We will introduce brainstorming as a creativity technique and work with it to develop your innovative ideas.

Entrepreneurship

“Launch an idea”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Launch an idea

What is an entrepreneur? What does it take to become one? How do they come up with innovative ideas? We will answer all these questions and guide you through the process of turning an idea into a start-up and a pitch.

Fundraising

“Tell a story and raise funds!”

FUNDRAISING

Tell a story and raise funds!

We will introduce you to different types of fundraising. You will learn how to set up a fundraising plan and how to tell a compelling story to attract donors to your cause. You will also carry out a crowdfunding campaign to test your fundraising abilities!

My Future

“Let passion drive your future”

MY FUTURE

Let passion drive your future

We start by exploring your interests, values, strengths, passions and skills. We will use them to help you make well-informed decisions for life upon graduation so that you can choose your path with purpose. The goal: to make a living out of what you love!

Survival Weekend

“Adapt to any circumstance”

SURVIVAL WEEKEND

Adapt to any circumstance

You will be the survivor of an intense weekend in the country during which you will need all of your abilities to overcome challenging hurdles!

Our Ambassadors

Our Ambassadors support our students and inspired and helped put together our curriculum.

Diego Chiavarelli

Communication Ambassador

Diego is overly curious and passionate about anything that he does not know and wants to learn. He has a penchant for non-verbal communication and technology […]

Diego Chiavarelli

Communication Ambassador

Diego is overly curious and passionate about anything that he does not know and wants to learn. He has a penchant for non-verbal communication and technology, particularly the one not yet on the market. A former business student at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome, he dropped out at age 23 and founded Dnsee, which today is the first marketing and digital communication company in Italy with more than 100 customers and 250 employees.

Quote: “When we will realize that the older we get the less we communicate, perhaps we will begin to communicate in the right way.”

Riccardo Luna

Changemaking Ambassador

Riccardo is a leading Italian journalist. In addition to spending 10 years at “la Repubblica”, he founded and directed […]

Riccardo Luna

Changemaking Ambassador

Riccardo is a leading Italian journalist. In addition to spending 10 years at “la Repubblica”, he founded and directed three other newspapers: “Campus”, “Il Romanista” and “Wired”. He has done a lot of seemingly unrelated things: he was the first to write about Calciopoli, he nominated Internet for the Nobel Peace Prize and he is president of Wikitalia, an association responsible for transparency and political participation across the web. He has several ongoing projects on the web: a blog on “The Post”, the direction of the site “Chefuturo! Il lunario dell’innovazione,” the coordination of Italia2013.me and the lead of StartupItalia!. He is the author of the well-known book “Cambiamo tutto” which means “Let’s change everything”. He edited and conducted international conferences like Happy Birthday Web, Makers iSchool and Next from the Repubblica delle Idee, and has been the co-director of the European Maker Faire in Rome in 2013 and 2014. He was recently appointed by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as the new Italian “Digital Champion”, a role created by the European Community to represent and lead innovation and digital matters within member nations’ government projects.

Quote: “Those who want to change the world don’t wait. They just do it.”

Andrea Denaro

Social Media Ambassador

Andrea is a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded Dnsee in 1999, leading it to become the largest marketing and communications company in Italy […]

Andrea Denaro

Social Media Ambassador

Andrea is a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded Dnsee in 1999, leading it to become the largest marketing and communications company in Italy. He works to develop, extend and expand the business of his clients in the digital environment. In the past few years he has followed and coordinated some of the leading digital projects in Italy. He is passionate about marketing strategy and he seeks to understand how the internet, in all of its forms, is changing our society daily. He never relies on first appearances and he likes to break down large problems to advance creative solutions. Above all, he is someone who tears down old schemes to make space for new ones. He has a wonderful wife and three extraordinary children who are his biggest joy.

Quote: “Social media are not considered part of traditional media channels, they have become an extension of ourselves in a world that is increasingly less virtual and more and more a mirror of our real life.”

Darlene Damm

Empathy Ambassador

Darlene Damm is a Change Leader with Ashoka, managing Ashoka’s work in the Silicon Valley. She has worked with Ashoka since 2007 and was key to raising […]

Darlene Damm

Empathy Ambassador

Darlene Damm is a Change Leader with Ashoka, managing Ashoka’s work in the Silicon Valley. She has worked with Ashoka since 2007 and was key to raising the initial funding for Ashoka’s empathy initiative. She is also a co-founder of technology companies DIYROCKETS and Matternet and Adjunct Faculty with the Singularity University at NASA Ames. Earlier in her career, Darlene launched Asia Society Young Professionals for the Asia Society Washington Center, developed a service-learning program for an experimental high school in Burma, managed cross-cultural leadership programs for Volunteers in Asia/Stanford University, developed an overseas education program for American teenagers in Vietnam and served as a Fellow with Japan-US Community Education and Exchange in Tokyo. She received her bachelor’s degree in History from Stanford University, her master’s degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS and attended the Singularity University in the Silicon Valley in 2011.

Quote: “Empathy is foundational for social innovation. It is key for caring about social problems, for developing solutions that will actually work, and for serving on teams and working with partners to successfully implement solutions at scale.”

Riccardo Luna

Changemaking Ambassador

Riccardo is a leading Italian journalist. In addition to spending 10 years at “la Repubblica”, he founded and directed […]

Riccardo Luna

Changemaking Ambassador

Riccardo is a leading Italian journalist. In addition to spending 10 years at “la Repubblica”, he founded and directed three other newspapers: “Campus”, “Il Romanista” and “Wired”. He has done a lot of seemingly unrelated things: he was the first to write about Calciopoli, he nominated Internet for the Nobel Peace Prize and he is president of Wikitalia, an association responsible for transparency and political participation across the web. He has several ongoing projects on the web: a blog on “The Post”, the direction of the site “Chefuturo! Il lunario dell’innovazione,” the coordination of Italia2013.me and the lead of StartupItalia!. He is the author of the well-known book “Cambiamo tutto” which means “Let’s change everything”. He edited and conducted international conferences like Happy Birthday Web, Makers iSchool and Next from the Repubblica delle Idee, and has been the co-director of the European Maker Faire in Rome in 2013 and 2014. He was recently appointed by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as the new Italian “Digital Champion”, a role created by the European Community to represent and lead innovation and digital matters within member nations’ government projects.

Quote: “Those who want to change the world don’t wait. They just do it.”

Darlene Damm

Empathy Ambassador

Darlene Damm is a Change Leader with Ashoka, managing Ashoka’s work in the Silicon Valley. She has worked with Ashoka since 2007 and was key to raising […]

Darlene Damm

Empathy Ambassador

Darlene Damm is a Change Leader with Ashoka, managing Ashoka’s work in the Silicon Valley. She has worked with Ashoka since 2007 and was key to raising the initial funding for Ashoka’s empathy initiative. She is also a co-founder of technology companies DIYROCKETS and Matternet and Adjunct Faculty with the Singularity University at NASA Ames. Earlier in her career, Darlene launched Asia Society Young Professionals for the Asia Society Washington Center, developed a service-learning program for an experimental high school in Burma, managed cross-cultural leadership programs for Volunteers in Asia/Stanford University, developed an overseas education program for American teenagers in Vietnam and served as a Fellow with Japan-US Community Education and Exchange in Tokyo. She received her bachelor’s degree in History from Stanford University, her master’s degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS and attended the Singularity University in the Silicon Valley in 2011.

Quote: “Empathy is foundational for social innovation. It is key for caring about social problems, for developing solutions that will actually work, and for serving on teams and working with partners to successfully implement solutions at scale.”

Gabriele Arcuri

Negotiation Ambassador

Gabriele is currently a managing associate at Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners, one of Italy’s leading law firms, where he specializes […]

Gabriele Arcuri

Negotiation Ambassador

Gabriele is currently a managing associate at Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners, one of Italy’s leading law firms, where he specializes in corporate law. He graduated in Law from the University “Roma Tre” of Rome in 2004 and is a member of the Italian Bar. He is convinced that with the right tools and a deep respect among counterparts, any negotiation can be profitably reached, reconciling different interests that often converge toward common success. He believes a hard negotiation is better than an argument as the latter is nevertheless hard. He is married to Valentina and father to Edoardo. He loves engines, politics and everything that pertains to social innovation. He considers himself very lucky and strongly believes that luck needs to be shared with those who in life have been less fortunate.

Quote: “Well, I don’t know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.” (John Pierpont Morgan)

Claudia de Dominicis

Decision Making Ambassador

Claudia is part of the core team which developed STAANOI’s Gamechangers course and serves as a Mentor and Senior Advisor. She is driven by her belief […]

Claudia De Dominicis

Decision Making Ambassador

Claudia is part of the core team which developed STAANOI’s Gamechangers course and serves as a Mentor and Senior Advisor. She is driven by her belief that success depends on the way we DO things – how we decide, communicate, empathize, negotiate, lead and embrace change. She brings to the team quite a diverse set of skills, which she acquired in the course of her life experiences. She grew up in Colombia, was educated in the US, spent 15+ years working in investment banking and, since moving to Italy in 2006, she has been working on a farm and taking care of her family business. Claudia graduated from Wellesley College in 1986 with a double major in Math and Economics. She thinks that the key take-away from her two years at Harvard Business School, where she earned an MBA in 1993, is knowing how to answer the questions “What is your plan of action?” and “How are you going to implement it?”

Quote: “With each decision we make we lose an alternative, no matter what we decide. Decisions are just a matter of knowing what it is we are not prepared to lose.”

Alexandre Terrien

Leadership Ambassador

Alexandre is a big thinker, leader and humanist. A graduate of Harvard University and Singularity University, he was the Head of Community […]

Alexandre Terrien

Leadership Ambassador

Alexandre is a big thinker, leader and humanist. A graduate of Harvard University and Singularity University, he was the Head of Community at Sandbox, a global community of high character, high impact leaders and innovators. He sat on the board of Spark Inside, a nonprofit introducing life coaching for re-offending youth in the UK, and currently sits on the board of Moonkeys Music, an independent music label in Paris. Before Sandbox, Alexandre led business development for Harvard professor David Edwards, and opened and led the Lab Store, Edwards’ experimental design store in Paris. He was the first author and editor-in-chief of Inside Harvard, a guidebook to the university that is sold nationwide and is on its third edition.

Quote: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

Carlo Noseda

Creativity Ambassador

Carlo is co-founder and Managing Partner of M&C Saatchi in Italy. He has been in advertising since his first day of work and grew up to become Saatchi & Saatchi […]

Carlo Noseda

Creativity Ambassador

Carlo is co-founder and Managing Partner of M&C Saatchi in Italy. He has been in advertising since his first day of work and grew up to become Saatchi & Saatchi New Business Director and Deputy General Manager. His experience comes from having worked for clients such as Sky, Intesa Sanpaolo, Telecom, Fiat, Leroy Merlin, Autogrill, Fastweb, Coni (Italian National Olympic Committee), Generali and MTV. In March 2014, Carlo was elected President of IAB Italia, an international organization that empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. The organization educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising.

Marco Marinucci

Entrepreneurship Ambassador

Angel investor and entrepreneur, Marco is the founder and managing partner of MTS, a seed venture capital fund. He’s also the founder and CEO of Mind the […]

Marco Marinucci

Entrepreneurship Ambassador

Angel investor and entrepreneur, Marco is the founder and managing partner of MTS, a seed venture capital fund. He’s also the founder and CEO of Mind the Bridge Foundation, a non-profit organization that connects the most innovative startups with Silicon Valley’s partners and investors. Prior to that, he was responsible for Google’s partnership development in several areas of digital publishing for over 7 years. Marco’s 20+ years professional experience spans from artificial intelligence research to startups in VoIP, E-commerce, E-learning and Ticketing. He’s a contributor for Il Corriere della Sera (the leading Italian newspaper) and a board member and lecturer of IE Business School in Madrid. He was awarded Primi-10 2013: “Outstanding human beings that are an example and inspiration for our generation and generations to come.”

Kay Sprinkel Grace

Fundraising Ambassador

Highly acclaimed speaker, writer and consultant to the NGO and nonprofit sectors. Working with organizations across the United States, Europe, Canada […]

Kay Sprinkel Grace

Fundraising Ambassador

Highly acclaimed speaker, writer and consultant to the NGO and nonprofit sectors. Working with organizations across the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, she has inspired a generation of professionals and board members to think courageously and boldly about the possibilities for societal change. Practical as well as theoretical, her six books range from “how to” books (The AAA Way to Fundraising Success) to theoretical (The ME-volution, with other authors) to a blend of the two (Beyond Fundraising: New Strategies for Innovation and Investment in Nonprofits). She is a sought-after speaker and consultant, bringing humor, hope, strategy and inspiration to her talks. Among her speaking engagements in recent years: Italian Fundraising Festival, International Fundraising Festival (Czech Republic), Slovak Fundraising Festival, International Fundraising Congress (The Netherlands), AFP International Conference (San Antonio, TX) and AFP Canada (Toronto) as well as Fundraising Institute Australia. In the US, she speaks regularly at conferences for professionals and board members on their role in donor development and fundraising, and has regular clients with whom she consults on board development, capital fund raising, annual fund raising and other issues of institutional sustainability. She lives in San Francisco. Her web site is www.kaygrace.org — visit her there for a full listing of her books, speaking engagements and clients.

Quote: “There is a vast and untapped marketplace for community investment. Having the passion — and the tools — for connecting people with organizations in a social investor relationship is critical to our achievement of all that we dream of for our communities and our world.”

Our growth

Train the Mentor Model

We foresee expanding the reach of the Gamechangers program through the recruitment of new Mentors. Through our Train the Mentor Model, we will enable selected passionate individuals to teach the Gamechangers course and take it to different cities and schools.
If you want to become a Gamechangers Mentor, please click on the Become a Mentor button below.